Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Yale in New York announces 2011-2012, its fifth season at Carnegie Hall

David Shifrin, Artistic Director

Four concerts showcase students, faculty, and alumni from one of the nation’s great music schools

Vocal Britain: Britten’s Serenade & Walton’s The Bear

Sunday, December 4 at 7:30 pm, Zankel Hall

The Complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas

Sunday, December 11 at 5:30PM and 7:30 pm (two recitals), Weill Hall

William Christie, Guest Conductor

Sunday, February 26 at 7:30 pm, Zankel Hall

De Profundis: The Deep End (Music for Low Instruments)

Sunday, April 1 at 7:30 pm, Weill Hall

From David Shifrin:

“The annual Yale in New York series is an adventure in unusual programming, and a celebration of the vast musical resources of the Yale School of Music.This season we present a wide variety of offerings ranging from British opera, conductor William Christie, the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas, and an entire concert for bass clef instruments.Please join us for a great musical journey.”

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The Yale School of Music (YSM) announces its fifth season of Yale in New York, the acclaimed and unique series that brings together distinguished faculty—famous soloists among them—with the ongoing legacy of exceptional alumni and current students on the stages of Carnegie Hall. Each concert displays the deep, creative, and exciting collaborations that are the heart and history of the Yale School of Music.

From December 4, 2011 – April 1, 2012, four concerts will feature music spanning continents and centuries:

• 20th-century vocal masterpieces from Britten and Walton

• a Prokofiev mini-marathon with the complete piano sonatas performed in one evening, celebrating Boris Berman’s new performance edition

• a program led by the great early music specialist William Christie

• an extraordinary finale of music for low instruments from Schütz, Mozart, Penderecki and Gubaidulina.

“Some of the most satisfying music-making I've heard in the past half-century.” Oberon’s Grove (Philip Gardner)

Yale in new york: 2011-2012 program details

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 7:30PM

ZANKEL HALL AT CARNEGIE HALL

“VOCAL BRITAIN: BRITTEN’S SERENADE & WALTON’S THE BEAR”

Dramatic and poetic music from Benjamin Britten and William Walton:

Two pieces, contrasting in manner but equal in richness.

Yale faculty members James Taylor, tenor, and William Purvis, horn, will be joined by graduate quartet-in-residence Linden String Quartet for Britten’sSerenade, a beautiful, haunting exploration of both the mysteries of night and the expressive capabilities of the noble French horn. In the second half, Walton scholar and New Haven Symphony Orchestra music director William Boughton will conduct Walton’s one-act extravaganza The Bear, a farcical opera based on a story by Chekhov. The performance will feature singers of Yale Opera, both students and recent alumni, under the artistic direction of Doris Yarick Cross, as well as members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale. This performance coincides with a 4-year “Walton Project” co-hosted by the New Haven Symphony and Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, whose collection includes 98% of Walton's original manuscripts.

Tickets at $15–$25 can be purchased after October 4 at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

PROGRAM/PLAYERS:

Benjamin Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings (1943)

James Taylor, tenor

William Purvis, horn

Linden String Quartet

William Walton: The Bear, An extravaganza in one act (1967)

Libretto by Paul Dehn, based on the play by Anton Chekhov of the same title

William Boughton, conductor

Singers of Yale Opera and members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale

This concert marks the publication of a new edition of the Prokofiev Sonatas, edited by Boris Berman,

Professor in the Practice of Piano and Artistic Director of the Horowitz Piano Series at Yale.

The entire cycle of Prokofiev sonatas, in two recitals on one day, in the intimate surroundings of Weill Recital Hall. This day of music will be the culmination of two undertakings: not only Boris Berman’s bilingual (English-Chinese) editorial project that corrects numerous errors that have crept in through the legacy of recordings, but of a department-wide, highly competitive contest among the piano students (the winners will perform the sonatas in concert). Boris Berman is chairman of the Yale piano department and one of the world’s most significant Prokofiev specialists. He is the founder of the Prokofiev Society of America, the first pianist to record all of the composer’s solo works (Chandos), and the author of Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas: A Guide for the Listener and the Performer (Yale University Press).

Tickets at $15 for each recital can be purchased after October 17 at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

William Christie earned his MM degree from the Yale School of Music in 1969. Now the Baroque specialist and founder of Les Arts Florissants returns to conduct students of his alma mater, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale.

William Christie returns to his alma mater to conduct members of the Yale Philharmonia and other forces. The Philharmonia was last heard at Carnegie Hall on the Yale in New York series when the great Krzysztof Penderecki led them in a concert of his own music, and before that when Reinbert de Leeuw guest conducted them in a brilliant performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. The New York Timesraved, “The performance was sensational: well prepared, solidly and precisely executed, and rippling with high-energy percussion and brass playing and a fluid interplay of polished strings as well as winds.”

Tickets at $15–$25 can be purchased after January 2, 2012 at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

music in the underground hall that will offer a challenge to the rumbles of the subway.

Usually found supporting melody and solo lines in the violins, trumpets and high woodwinds, the cello, bassoon, tuba, and even some exotic instruments now have their day on center stage. Composers through the centuries have relished the expressive sounds of these instruments, and an all-star ensemble of Yale faculty, alumni and students will share the honors: Frank Morelli, bassoon; Ole Akahoshi, Arnold Choi (2011 MM), Ying Zhang (2011 MM) and Mihai Marica (2008 AD), cellos; students from Don Palma’s double bass studio, Scott Hartmann’s trombone studio, and Mike Roylance’s tuba studio; the conductor Ransom Wilson, as well as special guests. The pieces include a Schütz work for four sackbuts and bass voice (rarely performed in the original instrumentation), Mozart’s duo for bassoon and cello, the idiomatic Penderecki Capriccio for solo tuba, and Gubaidulina’s five-movement Bassoon Concerto (Gubaidulina was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale University in 2009).

Tickets at $15–$25 can be purchased after February 6, 2012 at the Carnegie Hall box office (57th Street and 7th Ave.), by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800, or at www.carnegiehall.org. Student and senior discounts are available.

Yale in New York is the acclaimed series in which distinguished faculty members—many of them famous soloists—share the limelight with exceptional alumni and students on Carnegie Hall’s stages, capturing the intense collaboration found on every level at the Yale School of Music. The 2009-10 season showcased the classical legacy of Benny Goodman; undiscovered Prokofiev works; the Oral History of American Music project; and Penderecki conducting Penderecki. The 2010-11 season featured Sleeping Giant, Yale guitarists, the Yale Percussion Group, rarely-performed 20th century concerti grossi, and Robert Mealy’s Yale Baroque Ensemble playing experimental 17th century music. The series is curated by David Shifrin.

“Consistently engaging.” The New York Times (Steve Smith)

“The playing had the kind of precision that can come only from painstaking, arduous rehearsal, yet it remained constantly fresh and surprising, with the spontaneity of improvisation. It was chamber music at its best.” Chamber Music Magazine

“Who can resist it? An evening of repertoire you’ve always wanted to hear but nobody offers? Well, just ask the Yale School of Music, which has been making its Yale in New York season appearances with just that strategy, and its appeal is—despite the city’s ferocious competition—truly irresistible.” Don’t Miss It blog (Judith Pearlman)